Saturday, August 4, 2012

Back to School Picture books, new products and a flash freebie!

I'm participating in First Grade Found Me's back to school picture book linky party. I saw the party earlier this week and have been meaning to link up all week. Since I've been having a hard time coming up with good meaty posts about school related things. Well, I know what I want to post about, they just take a little more brain power and time than I've felt like.
So here are some of my favorite back to school books.

I usually read this with the kids and then they each pick a color of crayon. In their table groups, they draw a picture as a group using only the color they chose. We talk about how we work together in the classroom and we're all important.

We read this one and do a lot of name activities. We count the letters in our name and graph them. I've found some new ideas for this book from some other fellow bloggers.

This is another good one to read. I'm excited about reading I know an Old Lady who Swallowed some Books. I just got it last week and for some reason I can't find a picture of it on Amazon. I have about a week and a half before the kids come but I haven't finalized my first day plans yet. I'm still trying to sort through all my resources I've downloaded this summer.
On a side note, I've posted two new items to Teacher's Notebook and TPT. (TPT hasn't been cooperating with me at home.)
The first is only on Teacher's Notebook right now. It's the second packet of my sight word units. The words are taken from the Treasures reading series. This one is for the words in unit 2. You can check it out here.http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/kheinrich9/words-that-pop-up-packet-2 Check out unit 1 while your there.

Each of the sight word packets contains cards for all the sight words that you can do a variety of things with. I included a game. I also have printed them out in a color and have them ready for my word wall. The last thing I want to do with them is make sight word rings for my students to practice with. Does anyone else use those? I don't think I'm going to laminate them because I don't really want to cut them out. I would love a little input on that.

The next packet that I posted is my Red, White, and Blue Classroom Theme. You can find that in either one of my stores.(http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/kheinrich9/red-white-and-blue-classroom-theme or http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Red-White-and-Blue-Classroom-Theme-Set)

This is what I'm using in my classroom this year. Well, this and the superhero stuff I've made. You can check out some pictures of this pack in action on last week's Monday Made it. The colors are a little off on mine because of my ink cartridge being all messed up.
Last but not least on this increasingly long and random post, I have a flash freebie up on my TPT store. You can get my Sweet Treats Math unit for free for most of the day. So be sure to check it out and leave me some feedback.(Hope you grabbed your freebie. It was free from Aug. 4 at 11:44 until Aug. 8 at 8:31)
I will hopefully be back tomorrow with some more information on Reading workshop and some freebies. Meanwhile, check out the flash freebie and the other back to school books on First Grade Found Me.

One more random thing, I'm guest blogging for Hadar at Miss Kindergarten. (Yes, the Miss Kindergarten). Be sure to check it out, I have a freebie for you.

Hey, Keri! What a precious blog!! The funny thing about this post is, is that I've used 2 of your books listed above {Chrysanthemum & Give a Mouse...} with my 3rd and 4th grade readers to introduce skills {theme, sequence of events, & cause and effect}. Don't you LOVE how versatile trade books can be?!??! Actually, I just started a weekly feature on Tuesday's called "Trade Book Tuesday"!! I LOVE this linky party!!!

Thanks for linking up to the Back to School Books party. I really like your idea of having the kids draw a picture in a group to go with the Crayon Box story. I hope to see you back for the link-ups at other holidays. I'm your newest follower too!ChrissyFirst Grade Found Me